BALTAP Break Through the Sound 1963

[fitzpatv]

It is a cold, wet December day in 1963 and World War Three has broken-out. Soviet forces have invaded Zealand, Denmark and are advancing on Copenhagen as part of a general offensive in Western Europe. In tandem with this assault, their Baltic Fleet attempts to break through the Sound, between Copenhagen and Southern Sweden and into the wider waters of the North Sea.

To do this, they have 3 cruisers, 5 destroyers, 4 frigates and 3 fast missile boats, several ships being equipped with Shaddock, Scrubber and Styx anti-shipping missiles and/or SAMs. Three diesel subs have already slipped through the narrow strait into the shallow Kattegat beyond. The operation is covered by numerous MiG-21 and MiG-17 fighters, with Fitter attack planes (armed with bombs and rockets) and a solitary Madge ASW flying boat.

Facing this as the NATO player, you have to rely on local Danish and West German forces. You have two German destroyers, two Danish frigates, 8 Danish and 12 German torpedo boats, two Danish patrol boats, a minelayer and three small, gun-armed oilers. These ships have no missiles of any description, rely on guns for air defence and have weak sonar and ASW weapons (most only have depth charges). Only the destroyers (former US Fletcher-class from WW2) carry anything as heavy as 127mm guns.

Also at your disposal are a dozen Danish Sabre and Super Sabre fighters. The latter have rear-aspect Sidewinders, which are ineffective below 5,000’, but can also carry bombs and rockets. The baseline Sabres are limited to Mighty Mouse anti-air rockets with a range of 1.5nm!. You also have the luxury of a single Gannet ASW plane with torpedoes and sonobuoys.

Under AI control are one Danish and 5 West German diesel subs, the former in the Sound and the latter deployed two S and three N of it. Further support comes from a Nike Hercules SAM site N of Copenhagen, some 40mm Bofors batteries, a unit of 203mm SP howitzers covering the straits, a surface search radar scanning the approaches from the Baltic and a couple of air search radar arrays.

Finally, Sweden has declared herself neutral, but has made it clear that she will defend her airspace and territorial waters against either side. Exactly how far these extend isn’t quite clear, but the briefing mentions a 3 mile limit on the E shore of the Sound. These waters can be used for navigation without hindrance from the Swedes. To enforce this, Sweden has a destroyer, a frigate and several MTBs, as well as a number of fighter aircraft of unconvincing design.

You are advised in the briefing to adjust the Fine-Grained Navigation settings in Game Options to prevent ships sailing on land. When I tried this, I triggered a warning that it would have a severe impact on processing times, so I didn’t do it, keeping to the defaults. In practice, this was fine and ships kept to the water.

An intriguing situation, with a lot of unusual features, but not an encouraging prospect from a NATO standpoint. Basically, you face what look like overwhelming odds and the Russians have 24 hours to break through. You are told that the three cruisers (Dzerzhinsky, Sverdlov and Kynda) are your priority targets.

Leaving the AI-controlled subs to do as they might, I adopted a cautious approach. In the S, the patrol boat Bellona was told to get away to the N ASAP, beyond where her minelaying counterpart Daphne was laying her eggs (while respecting Swedish waters). The purpose-built minelayer Falster would lay another minefield a little way NW of the entrance to the Kattegat, assisted by 5 mine-carrying Danish MTBs of the Glenten class. The other MTBs would gather around the N end of the Sound and try to mount a mass attack with torpedoes as the Russians made to exit. Hopefully, in the interim, they would have taken some damage from subs, mines and the 8” guns. As for the destroyer squadron, they seemed hopelessly vulnerable to sub and air attack and I initially had them sheer-off NW into the Skagerrak for their own safety, acting as a last-ditch reserve.

With only a few aircraft, caution was the order of the day. I had the Gannet patrol in the vicinity of the destroyers, while the Sabres remained grounded until definitely required. Despite appearances to the contrary, all of these planes CAN be assigned loadouts, though most suffer from ready times of a few hours.

22/12/63 15:00L : Things got off to a dramatic start, which recalled H-Hour in Northern Fury!. I quickly found that there were Soviet SAM sites and radars in East Germany and Poland, but these were too far away from the action to be a threat unless I did anything silly. Before long, the sub U-4 detected a Kildin-class destroyer and several Komar attack boats heading N, clearly the advance guard of the Soviet fleet. A Madge patrolled to their E.

Somewhat to my perverse relief, the AI threw away its prime card by blazing away, seemingly at random, with its impressive arsenal of anti-ship missiles. Everything was fair game and no respect whatever was paid to Sweden’s neutrality. Two fishing boats were soon sunk and Shaddocks began treating the Sound as a bowling alley, with others flying speculatively over Jutland.

Meanwhile, some Swedish T-32 MTBs came under 152mm gunfire from what appeared to be the Soviet main body near the island of Bornholm, three being sunk without changing Sweden’s game status in any way.

Russian fighters and attack planes braved the foul weather and came roaring-in over Jutland.

As so often, Auto-Evasion was a total pain, with some of my ships disregarding orders and racing about, wasting fuel until I switched it off. Having group leads allowed to slow down to re-group is also a ‘no-no’ in this scenario and is best forbidden if you want to avoid chaos.

A lucky Shaddock locked-onto one of the Rhein-class oilers off E Jutland and sank it. Most ship losses score 10 VP in this scenario.

The Fitters took down the Danish surface search radar, which merely cost me the use of it. Despite being attacked, the Swedes were making little attempt to engage Russian intruders. This didn’t stop the MiGs shooting down a Swedish Hunter.

More Soviet missiles arrived and sank the Swedish destroyer Ostergotland.

MiG-17s armed with rockets damaged the Nike Hercules site (which had downed a few missiles), losing one of their number in the process. Planes score nothing for either side.

Another roaming Shaddock hit and sank one of the Glenten minelaying MTBs, then the minelayer Falster suffered the same fate, as did a third fishing boat. Missiles kept coming and there was no defence beyond prayer.

16:00 : Daphne finished laying her mines, but in too tight a pattern, grouped in the middle of the channel. Their two-hour activation time made it probable that the Soviet advance guard would get past them intact. Daphne headed N at Flank, aiming to clear the area of operations, which she eventually did.

The AI-controlled Danish sub Delfinen tried to engage the advance guard, confirming it as a Kildin and three Komars. She probably hit the Kildin, causing the enemy to slow to 6 knots, but then stopped to recharge batteries as the Russians continued past!.

17:00 : The German U-2 made a rather more pleasing contribution, finding and sinking a Romeo-class sub at the N end of the Sound.

Various aerial skirmishes ensued. Russian fighters downed another Hunter and two obsolete Swedish Tunnans. One of my Super Sabres latched-onto two RTB-ing MiG-17s and managed to bag one and the Nike Hercules, still functional, earned the gratitude of our submariners by disposing of the enemy’s only Madge.

Unfortunately, it was then shelled to oblivion by the Kildin group. Given the weather, they did well to see it and even better to detect my 203mm battery which, admittedly relying on the Mk1 Eyeball, couldn’t see them well enough to fire back. So much for my hopes of damaging the invaders with that!

18:00 : Remarkably, the attendant Bofors guns could see better and damaged the Kildin and a Komar. The Soviet advance force was then bombed by two Super Sabres, which inflicted further damage.

By now the main enemy fleet was nearing the Sound, with the subs U-3 and U-4 trying to engage.

19:00 : U-4 was sunk by escorts, but torpedoed the cruiser Sverdlov three times, reducing her speed and, therefore, that of the entire force to 6-7 knots. The Russians took revenge by sinking U-3 as well.

The patrol boat Bellona bravely took-on the advance group with her 76mm guns, sinking a Komar. The crippled Kildin could still reply with her 57mm guns and Bellona, taking light damage, prudently withdrew. A second Komar then sank from accumulated fires and flooding.

20:00 : A Super Sabre attacked the Kildin, but managed to miss with all eight bombs from 12,000’. Despite big fires and flooding, the Soviet destroyer had restored her speed to 14 knots and, with no morale rule in the game, kept advancing with the last Komar.

A Glenten was sent into the Sound to finish her off, but the water proved too shallow for her torpedoes, which grounded. Evidently, their use had to be limited to the centre of the channel. Somehow, the Kildin was now doing 20 knots!.

We had detected a Foxtrot submarine in the Kattegat, but lacked anything to attack her with and simply steered clear of her patrol zone. The Russian then solved our problem by wandering into our Northern minefield.

As the Kildin was lured into deeper water, the remaining three Glentens engaged and finally disposed of her. They then engaged the last Komar and, in the ensuing duel, each side lost a boat.

22:00 : A flight of Sukhoi Fitters took-out one of the Danish air search radar arrays. A Super Sabre tried to retaliate, but her Sidewinders couldn’t engage the Soviet planes at low altitude and they escaped.

23/12/63 01:00 : The main Soviet force advanced through the Sound. Delfinen, under AI control, did her best to avoid contact. She might have been out of ammo. A Koni-class frigate, scouting ahead, hit two mines, but they had depressingly little effect. The last Glenten with torpedoes attacked the Koni. She needed her radar on to attack, but severely damaged the frigate before withdrawing and acting as a radar picket at a safe distance.

02:00 : The first of the three Danish Falken-type MTBs detached from her group to deal with a second, Riga-class frigate. Two torpedoes missed on 65% chances, but the third did the trick. The Koni limped back the way she’d come, hugging the Swedish shore to prevent torpedo attack.

03:00 : As the Russian cruisers came-up, the Falken made a ‘proof of concept’ attack, but was overwhelmed by gunfire and her remaining torpedo missed.

04:00 : The other MTBs closed-in for the planned mass attack, but weren’t concentrated enough and the Russians had time to deal with them in turn. The two surviving Falkens couldn’t get close enough and were sunk. Next, a squadron of three German Silbermowe boats was crushed by the sheer weight of fire and the two tinfish they managed to loose, being unguided, sailed astern of the cruiser Kynda. One boat lived long enough to do light damage to the Kynda with 40mm fire.

The six German Jaguar MTBs changed tactics and tried to hide against the shore of the Kattegat to the W of the exit from the Sound. Meanwhile, the AI-controlled sub U-2 stooged around as though nothing was happening.

Unfortunately, the flat Danish coastline left nowhere to hide and the Jaguars began taking fire. They resignedly charged and were mown-down in turn, with the few torpedoes they managed to fire falling foul of the grounding problem (because they’d moved close to the shore). Adding to the pain was the game’s serious performance problem when processing naval gunfire – this needs to be addressed by the designers, as it slows things to treacle speed, here and in other scenarios.

05:00 : That left three German Zobel-class boats, close to but not quite within the Swedish 3nm limit to the NE of the Sound exit. I must have slightly miscalculated this and, despite everything the Russians had been doing to them, the Swedes snuck-up some MTBs of their own on the Zobels and attacked them!. The Germans escaped, but two suffered damage to their torpedo tubes from Bofors fire.

While this was happening, Fitters appeared and sank one of the remaining Glentens, which was trying to withdraw.

Things weren’t looking good at all but, at this point, the U-2 woke-up, adding some much needed edge to NATO’s operations and elevation to the score. She torpedoed and sank the damaged Sverdlov for 110 VP, then did the same to a second Koni, a Kashin-class destroyer and an auxiliary tug (which was presumably there to help with any groundings on the shoals of the Sound). ‘Achtung, Baby!!’

06:00 : The Dzerzhinsky moved ahead of the rest of the Soviet force, with a Kotlin-class destroyer in support. The Zobels re-grouped and attacked her, but were destroyed by gunfire and their torpedoes missed. This is the usual fate of light torpedo craft attacking gun-armed ships in Command, but you can only play the cards you are dealt.

On the positive side, the Russians’ earlier profligacy had clearly left them desperately low on ammo. Racing-up were NATO’s last hope – the two Fletcher-class Kriegsmarine destroyers and the Danish frigate Esbern Snare, with her slower counterpart Triton lagging behind. Coinciding fortunately with their attack was the sub U-1. Between them, they ripped the guts out of the Dzerzhinsky for another 110 VP and the destroyers followed-up and sank the Kotlin, too. All of a sudden, we were in Minor Victory territory and the Russians were looking extended and threadbare.

Two Super Sabres attacked the Kynda without apparent effect. Unluckily, MiGs turned-up just as they made their bombing runs and neither Danish plane survived.

07:00 : A Krupny-class destroyer was next to emerge from the Sound and, armed only with 57mm guns after expending her missiles, she never stood a chance. The Fletchers then finished-off the damaged Koni before doing the same to the Kynda (again, reliant on and out of missiles) for another 110 VP award.

08:00 : A Super Sabre recon flight detected a crippled Krupny in the Sound. She had probably struck a mine. Another Super Sabre polished her off with Mk83 bombs from 2,000’.

09:00 : More aerial recon then found a trailing Riga-class frigate making a foolish approach to the Sound (no morale rule, once again).

10:00 : This vessel had a considerable run of luck, avoiding Delfinen despite sailing straight over her, dodging the mines, then accidentally using the W shoreline of the Sound to present an imprecise target to the Fletcher group. This got her close enough to engage and damage the Esbern Snare, which pulled-back. That was the limit of her success and she was shelled to death, painfully slowly due to the performance issue, by the Fletchers.

Four MiG-17 fighter-bombers came-in but, fortunately, were after some ammo-less Bofors guns instead of the ships. They took-out both batteries, but this cost no points.

As an experiment, I tried engaging some MiGs with Mighty Mouse rocket-firing Sabres, but lost all three planes to accurate Alkali missiles before they could get close enough to fire. A technological dead-end, really.

15:00 : With the surface threat gone, I pulled my remaining ships back out of airstrike range and the game ended in a Major Victory with a score of +260.

It was a bloodbath recalling the last scene in ‘Hamlet’. NATO lost an auxiliary oiler, 19 MTBs, 5 fighters, 4 radars, 6 artillery elements, 8 SAM elements, 4 AA guns and two diesel subs. The USSR lost 3 cruisers, 5 destroyers, 4 frigates, 3 missile boats, 2 diesel subs, a tug, two fighters, an attack plane and a flying boat. Sweden lost a destroyer, 3 MTBs and 10 fighters and 5 neutral fishing boats were sunk by the Russians.

So the Russian attempt to break out of the Baltic ended in a disastrous failure, not helped by the AI’s ham-fisted approach, wasting ammo, attacking Sweden and civilians and feeding ships through the Sound piecemeal. In truth, NATO probably couldn’t win if the Russians were handled more intelligently. U-2’s intervention made a big difference.

Overall, it was a highly-entertaining game, which recalled the early Northern Fury scenarios, even if it had its exasperating moments.